Mobile video is linchpin for marketing success

Marketers in all verticals have been incorporating mobile video into their efforts. Whether the goal is to drive brand awareness or purchase intent, mobile video is on the rise and companies are increasingly allocating their television advertising dollars to the emerging channel.

Companies are strategically incorporating mobile video as part of a bigger portion of their TV and video initiatives. 2012 has been the tipping point in mobile video adoption and marketers are really starting to take notice.

“TV has been the linchpin of brand building for over 50 years as video ads have what it takes to make an emotional impact – sight, sound, motion and emotion,” said Ujjal Kohli, CEO of Rhythm NewMedia.

“And the consumer is in a lean-back state to receive the message,” he said. “Mobile video has all that and adds five breakthrough advantages over TV including interactivity, precise targeting and frequency control, equal viewing throughout the day avoiding the crush of prime time when ads are skipped, tight linkage to social media and capability to instantly measure ad impact.

“Mobile video is gaining rapidly in scale, and we think it will be the best brand medium ever.”

Driving adoptionAs with any new medium, early adopters are already using mobile video actively.

However, it is important for bigger brands to jump on board as well.

“We have large advertisers that reallocated TV money to mobile video,” Mr. Kohli said. “They think it is better than online video as it is full screen and immersive.

“And those are why mobile video has an unprecedented 90 percent completion rate,” he said.

According to Mr. Kohli, consumer packaged goods and telecommunication companies, as well as the travel, entertainment and automotive industry are the leading spenders in mobile video so far.

“More than 200 major national brands have advertised with us so far and we see that number growing,” Mr. Kohli said. “Also, the average spend level per campaign is going up strongly.

“And finally, many more brands are discussing upfront buys with us, where they commit their budget for the year in advance, in return for reserving premium inventory, which is limited,” he said. “By premium we mean video ads run in front of video content that is top tier.”

Mobile videoCompanies such as Dr. Pepper, Visa and Lay’s have all incorporated mobile video into their campaigns.

For example, earlier this year Lay’s looked to increase its social presence by running mobile video ads within Hulu’s iPhone application.

“If the goal is brand awareness or brand recall or purchase intent, mobile video is the linchpin for marketing success,” said Saurabh Bhatia, chief business officer at Vdopia. “Across these parameters, mobile video is the best performing ad unit hands down.

“More than 33 million unique users watched video on their mobile devices just in fourth quarter of 2011,” he said. “If you add reach of mobile video advertising – including non-video content like gaming, apps and mobile Web – this numbers reaches more 70 million, which is huge.”

According to the executive, 2012 has been the tipping point in mobile video adaption by marketers.

“Also, the key trend that we are seeing is growth of HTML5 video adaption,” he said. “My prediction is that local, mobile, video advertising will emerge as a key advertising parameter and will start eating into the share of local cable and local OOH Media."

Final Take

Associate Editor Rimma Kats covers media, television, research and social networks. Reach her at rimma@mobilemarketer.com.